Tenor Health Foundation CEO Radha Savitala has a simple message for the people of Northeast Pennsylvania: The new owner of three hospitals in the region is here to stay.
“The impact really has been to show that we are here for the long run,” Savitala said.
But the nonprofit that acquired Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, Regional Hospital of Scranton and Moses Taylor Hospital from for-profit Tennessee-based Community Health Systems three months ago had to convince its workers of that first.
A key challenge following the acquisition was staff retention.
Savitala said Tenor saw a high volume of resignations leading up to the sale and during the first few weeks of Tenor’s ownership. The nonprofit worked to bring back staff and recruit more.
“About 80% have rescinded those resignations, and that's all the way from environmental services up through advanced cardiac services, and I think that says a lot about the leadership and that people want to be here, and they want to stay," said Dr. Patrick Conaboy, vice president of clinical services and quality for Commonwealth Health, as the system is still known.
"They were just tired, and now people are feeling energy again,” Conaboy added.
Savitala, Conaboy and Michael Clark, Commonwealth Health’s president and the CEO of the three hospitals, spoke with WVIA News this week about the first few months of Tenor's ownership and their vision for the future.
Savitala said she found recruitment to not be the “Herculean effort” it was originally expected to be.
“We’re finding that there's a lot of excitement surrounding the region and the building back of core services and service lines,” she said.
“The day-to-day operations may not seem like there are big changes, but I think in looking back in the last 90 days, we're seeing these big picture items that we've been able to accomplish,” Savitala said.
Financial stability in focus
Tenor purchased the three hospitals after more than a year of uncertainty regarding their ownership and fears of a potential closure for at least Regional Hospital.
In fiscal 2023, expenses outpaced revenues by 24.1% at Moses Taylor; 9.5% at Regional and 15.7% at Wilkes-Barre General, according to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council report for that year.
Regional and Moses Taylor now operate under one license. CHS consolidated their emergency rooms at Regional.
Patrick Conaboy are joined by Tenor Health Foundation CEO Radha Savitala on video to discuss the last three month's of Tenor's leadership of three area hospitals.
According to the council's most recent report, for fiscal 2024, expenses outpaced revenues by 20.6% at the combined Regional Hospital of Scranton and by 6.19% at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
Tenor remains focused on the financial stability of the hospitals.
“There are multiple parts that go along with stabilizing financially, and that's really the process that we're going through now. Lending is one thing, but if you are not operationally rightsizing your expenses and your revenue, the long-term debt won't help you. And so all three things have to come together, and that's what have been working on and continue to work on,” Savitala said.
Conaboy had a medical practice at Regional Hospital for 27 years, and saw the hospitals progress through decades of change.
“I was there when we transitioned from not-for-profit to for-profit, and I'm thrilled to be here when we are transitioning back to a community based community service concept of not-for-profit," he said. "It was a long journey, longer in Scranton than it was in Wilkes-Barre, with a lot of stress and anxiety."
That anxiety manifested itself in trouble recruiting staff under previous leadership.
“After years of not recruiting physicians, all of a sudden we have lists of people who want to come here. It turns out this is a great area to live in. We've been told nobody wanted to come here for years by our previous owner,” Conaboy said.
“After years, you start to internalize a bad view of yourself, and it's really nice to hear a different view come in,” he continued.
FAST FACTS: TENOR IN NEPA
● The hospital system did not change its name after Tenor acquired it. The three hospitals still operate locally as 'Commonwealth Health.'
● Tenor Health Foundation is a nonprofit "formed to identify, own, manage, and turn around financially challenged hospitals,” according to its website. Tenor's first acquisition was Sharon Regional Medical Center in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. That hospital, previously privately owned, closed last January. It reopened under Tenor's ownership last March.
● Regional and Moses Taylor operate under one license. Previous owner Community Health Systems consolidated the Scranton hospitals' emergency rooms in 2023, closing Moses Taylor’s ER.
● Tenor’s involvement came after months of searching for a new buyer after a previous deal with Woodbridge Healthcare, Inc. fell through in November 2024.
Tenor's immediate goals
Short-term goals include workforce development, as discussed.
“Our immediate needs are recruiting for primary care, which is an area that really lost focus in the past few years in this region,” Savitala said. “As far as recruitment goes, we've had some people move out of the area or retire, and resources were just not deployed to be able to replace those primary care needs, which is a focus for us.”
Clark said a critical needs analysis and priority list was started after the sale.
“We have the needs for some imaging equipment to come rapidly that will help enhance our cardiac and heart care. We also have some more infrastructure needs, such as some of our air conditioning has to be replaced, and that's before we get into the summer heat,” Clark said.
Tenor and hospital leaders also want to redefine their role in the community and gain back trust.
“We are your local hospital bringing incredible care and procedures right around the block, and that's taking time to redefine us, and people are still having a hard time making that transition. But it's only been 90 days. We're getting there,” Conaboy said.
Tenor's long-term goals
Longer-term goals include reinvigorating specialized service lines.
“We will be concentrating on women's health, especially at both of our hospitals,” Conaboy said.
“We have more OBGYN physicians than anybody else, and the imaging needs are there, as well as expanding the services that they do in both cities and re-establishing some of that care in Wilkes Barre that under CHS we backed off," Conaboy said. "Cardiac care is something that both hospitals have always done tremendously well. Expanding those programs, along with our cancer screening program for lung cancer, etc, that are again, very prevalent in Northeast Pennsylvania, those are some of the areas that we really want to do what we do best.”
Infrastructure updates and investments are also part of the long-term planning for the hospitals.
“The substantial needs of the communities will be met here long term. Investing in the infrastructure is a big part of that long term process,” Savitala said.
Hospital leadership wants to develop strong relationships with the community, for funding opportunities as well as workforce development.
“We're not going to succeed purely on our own, we have to become part of the community. We're integrating with the local colleges, with the local training programs,” Conaboy said.
Community leaders weigh in
In Scranton, Mayor Paige Cognetti expressed relief that the hospitals are in a more stable situation.
“After years of uncertainty, the fact that services are continuing and staff members are staying is really, really impactful. We're very pleased that those services continue here in Scranton at Moses and Regional," Cognetti said.
"It matters to all the families here that depend on those hospitals for life saving care. And of course, it matters to the doctors and nurses, the staff members who show up every day when their futures have been uncertain for quite some time,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne) worked with partners like state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski (D-Lackawanna) to ensure the sale would be completed.
"I am pleased by the dedicated efforts to make this transition as seamless as possible. Regional Hospital of Scranton, Moses Taylor Hospital, and Wilkes-Barre General Hospitals are vital parts of our community, and while it is still a long road ahead, these investments are a promising sign of continued expansion in healthcare access and community support," Bresnahan said in a statement.
Bresnahan requested federal funding for Moses Taylor Hospital for fiscal year 2027.
"We're continuing to do everything we can to support local communities and healthcare facilities in the district. Our office requested more than $3 million to help establish a comprehensive Women's Imaging and Breast Center at Moses Taylor Hospital. This federal funding request is another step in expanding access to cancer screening and healthcare services in Northeastern Pennsylvania," Bresnahan said.
And Cognetti wants local voices represented in Tenor’s decision making.
“This is not the finish line. This still is the starting point. We need to have local voices at the table and how these hospitals are run. Our community deserves seats at the governance table when decisions are being made that will shape access to care, protect jobs, and determine, really the future of healthcare in our region," Cognetti said.
"I've been calling for quite some time for local folks to be on the governance board of these hospitals, and I've yet to my knowledge, yet to see that happen,” she added.
Cognetti also said she wants Tenor to take changes to Medicaid into account.
“We're seeing over 100,000 Pennsylvanians who have dropped health insurance since the beginning of the year. We're seeing the tightening of Medicaid already impacting families, already impacting healthcare providers,” she said.
“This is a time when we absolutely all need to be working together to maintain and grow healthcare access, as opposed to see it shrink.”
Community-focused approach
Savitala is already looking to healthcare challenges ahead, with changes to Medicaid slated to start in 2027 that KFF estimates will increase the number of uninsured Americans by 7.5 million by 2034.
“Our cost of providing the services increases on an annual basis, if not on a quarterly basis. We have high wage earners, number one. Number two, our providers are also expensive, especially given the shortage in the medical field, and yet reimbursement keeps shrinking," she said. "There are constant regulatory changes and constraints on our ability to operate, especially in the Medicaid arena."
But Savitala said Tenor’s nonprofit status sets her organization apart from the previous owners.
“The other thing that Tenor has brought to the table is really our nonprofit status. It really gave rise to the belief of transparency and that we can create these partnerships that are viable,” Savitala said.
Conaboy said it was important that a nonprofit become the hospitals’ new owner.
“We're not paying off distant shareholders and people who are looking to see the value of their stock go up, and at the same time, we are hoping that we are seen as a community asset, and while we're not feeding that dragon, we have real financial needs,” Conaboy said.
They’ve seen growth in community trust, as well as in hospital traffic since the sale.
“The reports about what was happening at these hospitals made people concerned about not coming to see us,” Conaboy said.
“What we are seeing is that getting out the word that we're here, we're better than ever, and we're growing has really changed traffic patterns. We see ambulances coming more and more to our hospitals that were passing us by," he added. "Our primary care doctors are scheduling their procedures with our physicians and our specialists when they were afraid to do that before.”
Savitala emphasized Tenor’s commitment to the region and wants patients to be reassured at the three-month ownership milestone.
“We wouldn't do this if we did not think that there was long-term stability for the region, as well as across Tenor and so the the addition of these hospitals, in addition to what we're doing on the other side of the state at at Sharon, really have have to come together in as far as right sizing our expenses, but maximizing our volumes and recruitment and retention of employees and providers is a big part of that, but ensuring that we're adhering to our appropriate expenses, including staffing, is important,” Savitala said.
